Listen
Hear
Willie
Dixon
LISTEN HEAR
Do you have a style for writing?
You see I always felt like after the early part of
my life, my parents used to always tell me most
people thought the blues was just something
that somebody would be hollering and it didn’t
mean very much. But they always explained to
me why these people were hollering like this,
and raising hell one way or the other – whether
it was good or bad, or whether it was past or
present. It was because they was expressing
the facts of life through their feeling of the
music. And at the time that they first started,
which the blues started way back. The people
that made the blues were the slaves. They had
to talk around the boss man and they had to
deliver their messages around him and talk to
each other without letting him know. This is why
they used so many slangs and all these various
things they created. And they used this and it
gave them a chance to let each other know mo re
about how they felt about the various things.
And by letting each other know how they felt
about things, then they began to communicate
and let each other know exactly what they were
going to do, right under the boss’s nose. So this
is the way (the style developed).
Is there any reason you can think of why
they had the couplet? Why you would say
a line, then you’d repeat it, and then you’d
answer?
Well, you see that was to get their attention.
That was the main thing, you see, because
you know like if someone was doing something
else and their mind on something else, you’d
say something the first time, they wouldn’t be
actually aware of what was happening. Then
after a while you wait a little while longer, and
you think you’ve got their attention, you’d say
the same thing again. And then you wait even
longer and you know you’re listening to hear
what’s the punch line is. And then all of a sudden
here comes the punch line. Well, in between
the particular statement you made in the first
(place), they would let time lapse in between and
go into other conversations about everything
else. Then all of a sudden here comes the punch
line and nobody thought nothing of it but the one
you were communicating with. ■
40
GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
DIGITAL EDITION
DECEMBER SPECIAL